In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

William Mossman
18 August 1793 – 23 June 1851

William Mossman was a Scottish sculptor operational in the early 19th century, and father to three sculptor sons.

Said to be a descendant of James Mossman (1530–1573), Mossman was born in West Linton, the son of the local schoolmaster, John Mossman (died 1808) and Jean Forrest.

He apparently trained under Sir Francis Chantrey in London before returning to Scotland in 1823, where he first lived in Edinburgh, working as a marble cutter on Leith Walk before moving Glasgow in 1830, where he lived for the remainder of his life. In 1833 he began his own company “William Mossman”, renamed to “J G & W Mossman” in 1854, when he embraced his sons into the firm as partners. From 1857 the firm was known as J & G Mossman Ltd.

During the boom of cemetery development in Glasgow Mossman received many commissions for monuments in the Glasgow Necropolis, Sighthill Cemetery and the Southern Necropolis.

Mossman died in 1851 and was buried in Sighthill Cemetery in north Glasgow, with his monument designed by Alexander “Greek” Thomson.

Bust of James Cleland (1831)

Bust of David Hamilton (c.1835)

Heraldic panels, Lennox Castle (1837–1841)

Monument to Peter Lawrence, Glasgow Necropolis (1840)

Monument to “Highland Mary”, Greenock Cemetery (1841)

Tomb of Mrs Lockhart, Glasgow Necropolis (1842)

Corbel heads on west front of Glasgow Cathedral and recarving of gargoyles (1842) under the employ of Edward Blore

Monument to Lt. Joseph F. Gomoszynski, Glasgow Necropolis (1845)

“Beloved Mother” monument, Glasgow Necropolis (1845)

Monument to Lord Cathcart, Paisley Abbey (1848)

Mossman married Jean McLahlan in London in 1816 and had three sons, each of whom became sculptors: John Mossman, George Mossman and William Mossman Jr.

Two Peas in a Pod has now passed the exclusivity to Amazon test and is available in wider release, electronically (digitally) for other readers now. We sold a few copies on Amazon but nothing to warrant an exclusivity period. Amazon is too big and too full of itself.

$3.99 for an electronic copy. The Trade Paperback, due to publishing costs and the cut that Amazon takes continue to see a Trade Paperback costing $15.99 (The much hyped royalties that we writers are supposed to get is nowhere near what the news reports say. Most of that price is taken by Amazon.)

Love is something that can not be fostered by deceit even should one’s eyes betray one’s heart.

Two brothers that are so close in appearance that only a handful have ever been able to tell them apart. The Earl of Kent, Percival Francis Michael Coldwell is only older than his brother, Peregrine Maxim Frederick Coldwell by 17 minutes. They may have looked as each other, but that masked how they were truthfully quite opposite to one another.

For Percy, his personality was one that he was quite comfortable with and more than happy to let Perry be of a serious nature. At least until he met Veronica Hamilton, the daughter of Baron Hamilton of Leith. She was only interested in a man who was serious.

Once more, Peregrine is obliged to help his older brother by taking his place, that the Earl may woo the young lady who has captured his heart. That is, until there is one who captures Peregrine’s heart as well.

Alan Hyde Gardner 2nd Baron Gardner the son of Admiral Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner, he followed his father into the Royal Navy. In 1796 he was captain of the frigate HMS Heroine, in 1802 he was captain of Resolution and in 1805 of the 74 gun HMS Hero – in the latter he was present at the action off Ferrol in 1805 and led the vanguard at the Battle of Cape Finisterre later that year.

In 1815 it was announced that he was to be created a Viscount, but he died before the patent had passed the Great Seal. He passed on the title of Baron Gardner to his son, Alan.

His first marriage was on 9 March 1796 to Maria Elizabeth Adderley, the daughter of Thomas Adderley and his wife Margaretta Bourke, later Baroness Hobart (d. 1796), and stepdaughter since 1792 of Robert, Baron Hobart, the future Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1801-04. The couple divorced in 1805, after Lord Gardner discovered his wife’s adultery and secret delivery of a child in June 1803, and brought about an ecclesiastical suit followed by an Act of Parliament, citing her adultery with a Henry Jadis (the father of her son born in 1803, Henry Fenton Gardner, who was declared illegitimate by the House of Lords in 1825). According to the Treatise on Adulterine Bastardy, the divorced Mrs Gardner married her lover immediately afterwards, and they raised Henry Fenton as their own child and with the Jadis surname.

His second marriage (as 2nd Baron Gardner) was on 10 April 1809 to Charlotte Elizabeth Smith (d 27 March 1811), third daughter of Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington of Upton and his wife Anne Boldero-Barnard. The couple had one son Alan (29 January 1810 – 2 November 1883) and one daughter, Hon. Charlotte Susannah Gardner (b 29 December 1810; d 15 August 1859) md 1835 Edward Vernon Harbord, 4th Lord Suffield (1813-1853) without issue. These children were “Irish twins”” (born in the same calendar year, and within twelve months of each other), and it is not surprising that Lady Gardner died three months later.

The 2nd Baron Gardner inherited his father’s barony and baronetcy in 1800. He died 1815, leaving legitimate issue. Efforts were made in 1824 to seat his son as a peer, and to ensure that Fenton Gardner (son of Lord Gardner’s first wife) would not inherit the peerage. The subsequent proceeding in the House of Lords established that Alan Legge Gardner was the 3rd Baron Gardner, and that his (half) brother was in fact illegitimate.

The stories of Humphrey and Gwendolyn. Published separately in: A Trolling we Will Go, Trolling Down to Old Mah Wee and Trollings Pass and Present.

These are the tales of how a simple Woodcutter and an overly educated girl help save the kingdom without a king from an ancient evil. Long forgotten is the way to fight the Trolls.

Beasts that breed faster than rabbits it seems, and when they decide to migrate to the lands of humans, their seeming invulnerability spell doom for all in the kingdom of Torahn. Not only Torahn but all the human kingdoms that border the great mountains that divide the continent.

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In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John Thomas Troy
10 May 1739 – 11 May 1823

John Thomas Troy

John Thomas Troy received his early education at Liffey Street, Dublin, after which he joined the Dominican Order and proceeded to their house of St. Clement, at Rome. Amenable to discipline, diligent in his studies and talented, he made rapid progress, and while yet a student was selected to give lectures in philosophy. Subsequently he professed theology and canon law, and finally became prior of the convent in 1772.

When the Bishop of Ossory died, in 1776, the priests of the diocese recommended one of their number, Father Molloy, to Rome for the vacant see, and the recommendation was endorsed by many of the Irish bishops. But Dr Troy, who was held in high esteem at Rome, had already been appointed Bishop of Ossory. He arrived at Kilkenny in August, and for the next nine years he laboured hard for the spiritual interests of his diocese. They were troubled times. Maddened by excessive rents and tithes, and harried by grinding tithe-proctors, the farmers had banded themselves together in a secret society called the “Whiteboys”. Going forth at night, they attacked landlords, bailiffs, agents, and tithe-proctors, and often committed fearful outrages. Bishop Troy grappled with them and frequently and sternly denounced them. He had no sympathy with oppression, but he had lived long in Rome, away from the poor Catholic masses.

He was therefore ready to condemn all violent efforts for reform, and had no hesitation in denouncing not only all secret societies in Ireland, but also “our American fellow-subjects, seduced by specious notions of liberty”. This made him unpopular. He was zealous in correcting abuses in his diocese and in promoting education. So well was this recognized at Rome that in 1781, in consequence of some serious troubles which had arisen between the primate and his clergy, Dr. Troy was appointed Administrator of Armagh. This office he held till 1782. In 1786 he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin. At Dublin, as at Ossory, he showed his zeal for religion, his sympathy with authority, and his distrust of popular movements, especially when violent means were employed; in 1798 he issued a sentence of excommunication against all those of his flock who would join the rebellion. He was also one of the most determined supporters of the Union.

In 1799 he agreed to accept the veto of government, on the appointment of Irish bishops; and even when the other bishops, feeling they had been tricked by Pitt and Castlereagh, repudiated the veto, Dr Troy continued to favour it. The last years of his life were uneventful.

Witnessing his cousin marry for love and not money, as he felt destined to do, Colonel Fitzwilliam refused to himself to be jealous. He did not expect his acquaintance with the Bennet Clan to change that.

Catherine Bennet, often called Kitty, had not given a great deal of thought to how her life might change with her sisters Elizabeth and Jane becoming wed to rich and connected men. Certainly meeting Darcy’s handsome cousin, a Colonel, did not affect her.

But one had to admit that the connections of the Bingleys and Darcys were quite advantageous. All sorts of men desired introductions now that she had such wealthy new brothers.

Kitty knew that Lydia may have thought herself fortunate when she had married Wickham, the first Bennet daughter to wed. Kitty, though, knew that true fortune had come to her. She just wasn’t sure how best to apply herself.

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